FOOTBALL A-League GF gets sold to Sydney

[Foordy]

Seems like the A-League board are trying to emulate the NRL's controversy and incompetent decision making.

the Men's and Women's A League grand finals have both just been sold to Sydney for the next 3 years (rather than allowing a team to earn the home ground rights as has always been the case)

the A-League boss denies that it was a conflict of interest to allow the representatives of the 2 Sydney clubs on the board to vote for the decision to award Sydney exclusive hosting rights for the next 3 GF's

Melbourne Victory have said that the club doesn't support the decision, despite their CEO (Who has now stood down) voting for the proposal

The A-League used footage of Craig Goodwin in their official announcement video, but he has since come out against the move ... maybe they should have checked before using him to promote a plan it seems very few people associated with the A-League actually support


A-League boss Danny Townsend says:

“It’s not a conflict of interest,”

“Those board members are placed there by the 12 clubs. They’re representing all 12 clubs when they’re making those decisions.”


Adelaide United chairman Piet Van der Pol says

“Adelaide United was not part of the decision to host each A-League grand final in NSW, as it is one of the Australian professional clubs without a seat on the APL board,”

“As a proud club dedicated to the people of South Australia, we believe the decision has not been made in the best interests of our fans.

“While a democratically made decision cannot be overturned, the process has highlighted the need to review the decision-making processes of the APL.”

Fan boycotts and protests have been organised by supporter groups for this weekend and beyond,

Townsend Again

“Making easy decisions loses you money. Making hard decisions makes you money – you’ve got to stay the course,” Townsend said.

“We believe that this is going to be good for our game. We believe that the game needs the financial injection to be able to continue to move us forward. We don’t have the luxury of a billion-dollar television deal.

“We all want to see the A-League and football become the number one sport in the country. “We won’t do that while standing still.”

 

[BroncsFan]

A League in more trouble after fans invaded the pitch and attacked players in the Melbourne derby tonight.

Are football fans in Australia trying to send their league broke??

You'd think Paramount or whoever currently has the rights are probably looking for a way out at the moment.

 

[ningnangnong]

All football fans in the matches preceding this did the correct thing and staged a walk-out protest.

The Victory fans have fucked it for everyone. Absolute fucking idiots.

 

[Sproj]

I don’t really know much about the A League as I don’t follow it but these protests, peaceful or not, seem to be a massive overreaction right? I mean as far as I understand, soccer is struggling majorly in this country and this GF deal would poor a huge injection of cash into soccer. Isn’t this a good thing? This seems like a bunch of petulant toddlers who just want to have a cry about something. Am I missing something?

Also, should we launch peaceful of course protests against the blatant corruption of the NRL?

 

[Foordy]

I don’t really know much about the A League as I don’t follow it but these protests, peaceful or not, seem to be a massive overreaction right? I mean as far as I understand, soccer is struggling majorly in this country and this GF deal would poor a huge injection of cash into soccer. Isn’t this a good thing? This seems like a bunch of petulant toddlers who just want to have a cry about something. Am I missing something?

Also, should we launch peaceful of course protests against the blatant corruption of the NRL?

It's the NRL-like way the A-League have gone about this that has pissed everyone off.

there is also the blatant conflict of interest during the vote. of course the two Sydney teams were going to vote for the proposal, it gives them a massive advantage.

I'd be willing to bet that they just received the offer from the NSW Government and put it to a vote ... rather than putting the tender out their and see if they could maximise their income by getting other state governments to bite. (i reckon they would have had nibbles from the QLD and Victorian Governments at the very least)

IMO, they've taken the short term approach and the quick buck. it would have been a much better strategy to try and capitalise on the Socceroo's "successful campaign" by trying to get greater coverage on Free to Air TV (even if it is on the secondary networks, like 10 Bold).

p.s. using Craig Goodwin's profile without checking with him first was just plain stupid, especially since he didn't agree with the proposal. it made the A-League board look like fools. I get that they had a right to, but it wasn't smart since he publicly rebuked them.

p.p.s we should absolutely launch peaceful protests against the NRL, but we follow the wrong sport to make it work. firstly, most supporter bases tend to hate each other, so would never be able to get on the same page. and even if a miracle happened and it can be organised Annersely and Vlandys would just spin it or ignore it.

 

[Locky24]

Does anyone think this could be the end of the A-league?

 

[tommy]

I’d probably attend a match or 2 if riots become a thing. Could be a good advertisement for the game.

 

[Broncapz]

Soccer is so boring people have to sing or fight to pass the time.

 

[Mustafur]

A league is shit, if football wants to have an impact in this country it has to do something different, get rid of the American MLS franchise model and bring promotion and relegation.

I would prefer this for NRL as well, but the franchise model worked for this game(financially atleast) and it would require to get rid of the salary cap(I mean this would massively benefit the Broncos and teams with actual support) which has been propagated as the saviour despite the same teams winning in it's current format.

I really liked their model of League leader in the final hosting the final, it would be never accepted for our game because not every team is based in Sydney but it's a fair model that also allows for a big stadium, every team in the A league is in a city that has a large stadium even if it isn't the one they use normally.